Merck & Co’s Covid-19 antivirals are getting a new lease of life in post-pandemic China, as cat owners seize on them as antidotes to a life-threatening disease caused by a coronavirus that infects their feline companions.
People are feeding their cats Merck’s Lagevrio to treat Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), a fatal disease that until recently had no readily available treatment, local media outlet Jiemian reported.
The move has been a hot topic on social media, with tens of thousands of cat lovers taking to Xiaohongshu, China’s version of Instagram, to discuss how the drugs saved their pets, along with money on expensive veterinary bills.
“Covid-19 drugs for humans saved my cat’s life,” one user wrote. “I share the notes here to teach more people to save their furry babies and reduce the pain suffered by cats.”
In addition to the foreign antivirals, some pet owners have opted for similar but cheaper Covid medicines developed by homegrown companies including Henan Genuine Biotech Co, Simcere Pharmaceutical Group Ltd and Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.
Chinese pet owners’ use of human Covid drugs on animals is in stark contrast to the early days of the pandemic, when the use by people of ivermectin in the US – a drug to treat parasitic worms in animals – prompted the US Food and Drug Administration to post words of caution: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Stop it.”
FIP is a viral disease caused by a feline coronavirus that infects white blood cells before spreading throughout a cat’s body, causing inflammatory reactions. Unique to cats and not contagious to people, dogs or other animals, the disease is fatal without treatment although no specific one was available until recently.
Some antiviral drugs have been proven to be effective but aren’t widely accessible. The most popular, GS-441524, developed by Gilead Sciences, hasn’t been approved by the FDA and cat owners often seek the drug through black market sources.
Chinese cat owners have to rely on informal networks to purchase GS-441524, which often costs tens of thousands of yuan. On Chinese social media, many complain the drug is too expensive and that many black market sellers give them a fake version.
Human Covid antivirals are much more affordable, they said. A 40-pill bottle of Lagevrio, for example, costs about 1,725 yuan (RM1,060) online and is enough to treat more than one cat.
Some cat owners also feed their pets nutritional supplements developed for humans. — Bloomberg
